System Administration Guide

Initialization Phase fsck Messages

In the initialization phase, command-line syntax is checked. Before the file system check can be performed, fsck sets up tables and opens files.

The messages in this section relate to error conditions resulting from command-line options, memory requests, the opening of files, the status of files, file system size checks, and the creation of the scratch file. All such initialization errors terminate fsck when it is preening the file system.


bad inode number inode-number to ginode

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

An internal error occurred because of a nonexistent inode inode-number. fsck exits.

Contact your local service provider or another qualified person. 


cannot alloc size-of-block map bytes for blockmap
 
cannot alloc size-of-free map bytes for freemap
 
cannot alloc size-of-state map bytes for statemap
 
cannot alloc size-of-lncntp bytes for lncntp

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

Request for memory for its internal tables failed. fsck terminates. This message indicates a serious system failure that should be handled immediately. This condition may occur if other processes are using a very large amount of system resources.

Killing other processes may solve the problem. If not, contact your local service provider or another qualified person. 


Can't open checklist file: filename

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

The file system checklist file filename (usually /etc/vfstab) cannot be opened for reading. fsck terminates.

Check if the file exists and if its access modes permit read access. 


Can't open filename

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

fsck cannot open file system filename. When running interactively, fsck ignores this file system and continues checking the next file system given.

Check to see if read and write access to the raw device file for the file system is permitted. 


Can't stat root

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

fsck request for statistics about the root directory failed. fsck terminates.

This message indicates a serious system failure. Contact your local service provider or another qualified person. 


Can't stat filename
Can't make sense out of name filename

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

fsck request for statistics about the file system filename failed. When running interactively, fsck ignores this file system and continues checking the next file system given.

Check if the file system exists and check its access modes. 


filename: (NO WRITE)

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

Either the -n option was specified or fsck could not open the file system filename for writing. When fsck is running in no-write mode, all diagnostic messages are displayed, but fsck does not attempt to fix anything.

If -n was not specified, check the type of the file specified. It may be the name of a regular file.


IMPOSSIBLE MINFREE=percent IN SUPERBLOCK (SET TO DEFAULT)

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

The superblock minimum space percentage is greater than 99 percent or less than 0 percent. 

To set the minfree parameter to the default 10 percent, type y at the default prompt. To ignore the error condition, type n at the default prompt.


INTERNAL INCONSISTENCY: message

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

fsck has had an internal error, whose message is message.

If one of the following messages are displayed, contact your local service provider or another qualified person:  

MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
NCG OUT OF RANGE
CPG OUT OF RANGE
NCYL DOES NOT JIBE WITH NCG*CPG
SIZE PREPOSTEROUSLY LARGE
TRASHED VALUES IN SUPER BLOCK

This message may be followed by an error in the following example:


filename: BAD SUPER BLOCK: block-number
USE AN ALTERNATE SUPER-BLOCK TO SUPPLY NEEDED INFORMATION;
e.g., fsck[-f ufs] -o b=# [special ...]
where # is the alternate superblock.  See fsck_ufs(1M)

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

The superblock has been corrupted. 

Use an alternative superblock to supply needed information. Specifying block 32 is a good first choice. You can locate an alternative copy of the superblock by running the newfs -N command on the slice. Be sure to specify the -N option; otherwise, newfs overwrites the existing file system.


UNDEFINED OPTIMIZATION IN SUPERBLOCK (SET TO DEFAULT)

Reason Error Occurred 

How to Solve the Problem 

The superblock optimization parameter is neither OPT_TIME nor OPT_SPACE.

To minimize the time to perform operations on the file system, type y at the SET TO DEFAULT prompt. To ignore this error condition, type n.